Ok, my Camaro has been down for about 4 months. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.. Well I now no whats causing the problems but I have no Clue on how its happening. Ok, this is whats going on. I have a brand new timing chain and gears, there is no slack in the chain. but the chain keeps jumping teeth. So when I realign the gears it will idle normaly for about 5 min then it starts to act stupid. then it just chugs and idles really slow and them shuts down. And the gears are outta alignment agian.

Another question is will a cam from a 2.8 work in a 3.4. I don't car about performace drops

 

Only disturbing possibility I can come up with for the chain jumping teeth without slack is crank or cam bearing play.. yes, the 2.8 cam will work fine, it's about 10 degrees less radical, lose some top end, pick up some torque.

 

is the woodruff key any good?

 

Ditto!

 

Is that the thing on the crank that the gear goes over. The thing that sticks up... if it is. How do I check it.... Its there and the gear doesn't move around

 

Do this -

Take the timing chain completely off. Grab the crank snout, and see if you can lift it up and down - if you can, that is bad.

Grab the cam sprocket. Same thing. Be careful, though, as you don't want to pull the camshaft out

If that all checks out, pull the crank gear back off, and look at the woodruff key. Is it chipped, smashed, or otherwise not looking brand new? If so, replace it.

If all the above checks out, reinstall the timing chain/gears. You are using all new gears/chain, right? Good! After re-installing it, go halfway up the chain, between the two gears, and push on the chain. Does it move? If so, it's stretched, and bad.

Good luck.

PS - if all this checks out, then I know of NO way for it to be jumping. Next time you align it, let it idle, and watch the timing marker with a timing light, and as the motor goes south, see what happens.

 

That's the thing, though.. if the woodruf key was messed, the crank and crank sprocket wouldn't align, but the timing gears *would* still align... so that's not a likely candidate...

 

the crank sprocket could be slipping. Just think if he had a ohc engine w/that happening

 

I haven't rechecked the sprocket but I can remeber when I checked it before and it looked fine.. and its jumping too much to really be the crank sprocket. its spinning almost 180 deg.

 

check the distributor. The manetic pick upo part that spins between the "finges" on mine were lose,and it wouldn't run right. A $30 replacement from a cavalier fixed it up just nicely.

 

But that wouldn't explain that when I realign the Timing gears it will run for a few min then get all stupid on me again

 

Not if the key is partially sheared off and allowing the crank gear to go on like it should, then backing off enough to cause it to slip and jump time.

 

that's exactly what happened with my old distributor. I could get it timed, but when I reved it, it went all wacky & shizz on me.

 

... you're missing the point, Klortho.. the crank and the sprocket would be misaligned, yes. But the sprocket and the cam gear wouldn't be affected, so the marks would still align.